KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A new report offers sobering news about the job market – jobs may be up, but people are bringing home a lot less money than they used to earn.
The National Law Project says 58 percent of all jobs created during the recovery have been low wage positions. They say that 60 percent of the jobs lost during the great recession were mid-wage jobs that paid between $14 and $21 dollars an hour.
But nearly 60 percent of the jobs being created are low-wage jobs that pay a lot less than what people made before the economic downturn.
“We consider it a success most of the time if somebody lands at 75 to 80 percent of what they were making before,” said Scott Anglemyer of job placement center Kansas Works.
Ramona Lindsay was recently downsized from the University of Phoenix and says she just assumes her next job will pay less than her last job.
“I’m mid-career and I’m finding that there’s less options,” said Lindsay. “There’s more lower level positions that are going to support the executives that are driving the strategies of the companies here in town ”
Experts say it’s important is to keep adding job skills, go back to college or get more training if you can afford it.
The U.S. Labor Department says more than half of the workers who lost their jobs during the recovery and found new ones, were working for less money.
About one-third took a pay-cut of 20-percent of more, the Labor Department reports.